Tue 3rd Jan 2017 - Oakman Inns reports results, makes £3.6m acquisition Oakman Inns reports results, makes £3.6m acquisition: Oakman Inns has reported full year results, buoyant December trading and a £3.6m acquisition. The accounts for year ending April 2016, show group turnover up by 52.8% at £19.3m, like for like sales up 5.7% and average sales per core Oakman site continuing to exceed £30,000 net per week. Site Ebitda grew by 39.5% to £3.08m and Group Ebitda more than doubled to £794,000. Current year trading ‘continues to be strong’ with like-for-like sales to the end of Quarter Three up 4.3%. The group also reported an excellent Christmas with the four-week trading period ending Sunday 1 January 2017 showing total sales up 30.5%, like-for-Like sales up 6.7% with average sales per site over the 15 fully-developed Oakman venues at £182,334 with an average of £45,583 week. The company stated: “Future growth prospects are also looking very positive with a number of acquisitions and development plans now confirmed. Most significant of these is the announcement that on December 30 2016, Oakman completed the acquisition of The Royal Foresters, a former Beefeater and Premier Inn, in Ascot for £3.6 million. Work will start on the £3.5 million development of a 10,000 square foot Oakman Inn with rooms in the Spring with completion in the Autumn. The company has also submitted a planning application to convert a freehold, former nursing home in Olney to an Oakman Inn and contracts have been exchanged for the freehold of 10 Akeman Street in Tring with the intention of allowing the company to extend their current flagship site. In financial terms, the company has also agreed terms for a £7 million senior debt and growth capital facility, as well as initiating a private fund-raising of a further £10 million via the Oakman Bond with £5.9 million of the total already raised. The board has also been strengthened with the appointment of John Leslie as non-executive director. Well known throughout the hospitality industry, the former Intertain chief executive was a board colleague of Oakman chief executive Peter Borg-Neal at Allied Domecq in the 1990s.” Borg-Neal added: “We were very pleased with our performance in 2015/16. The current year is going exceptionally well and we are considerably ahead of our budget for the year. We saw some choppiness with respect to sales at the beginning of Quarter Three but a stellar performance over Christmas has got us back on target. The acquisition of The Royal Foresters is hugely significant for Oakman Inns. I admired this site when I was at Whitbread and have coveted it ever since. It is a huge investment for us but we are confident that we have the skills to get strong returns from our investment. I am personally delighted that John has joined our board. He is a long-time friend whose wisdom and strength would be an asset to any board.”